Andy Murray was a set and a break up against an increasingly hangdog Marin Cilic on Court One when unrelenting cloud cover finally dissolved into rain, bringing an end to play for the day in a fourth-round match that had looked to be heading inexorably Murray's way.

The weather may be one of grass-court tennis's enduring variables but at a post-roof Wimbledon it also throws up inequities: there are those who will say British tennis has once again shot itself in the foot by scheduling Murray to play on an open court on a day when rain was forecast. He will now play on two consecutive days, while Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – likely opponents in a hypothetical final – have an extra day of rest after completing their own fourth-round matches in the covered splendour of Centre Court.

It seems harsh to accuse Wimbledon's schedulers of little more than playing fair: decisions on who plays on Centre are made with a view to even-handed rotation of the benefits. But the fact is Murray was engaged until past Wimbledon's bedtime on Saturday night in defeating Marcos Baghdatis and might have expected a little grace.

More to the point it is surely only in England that such resolute determination not to be seen to favour the home player would prevail. This is the best chance Murray has had of reaching the final. A sense of scheduling propriety – amateur in the best sense of the word – has just given him a tiny nudge backwards.

He is due to resume at midday on Tuesday on Court One, although the weather forecast offers no guarantee that the match will not go into a third day. An All-England Club spokesman explained the refusal to put Murray on Centre Court after Djokovic had eased past Viktor Troicki at around 8pm.

"The problems associated with moving matches between courts such as the stewarding, and the wish not to play another late night, all conspired to say our best option is to come back tomorrow. It is a traditional daytime, outdoor event. We have had four late nights already. We could go on to five or six. We have to draw the line somewhere and this is it."

Murray had seemed in the mood to polish Cilic off in quick time on the bijou suburbia of Court One, a high-spec outbuilding in the shadow of Centre Court's all-weather splendour. Looking superbly mobile against a heavy-legged opponent, Murray stretched and chased to pointed tactical effect, depleting the reserves of a man who had been on court for five and a half hours against Sam Querrey in the previous round.

He did start slowly, however. Court One lacks both Centre Court's roof and its sense of grand acoustic theatre and it was in front of a distinctly low-key crowd, cagouled against the afternoon chill, that Murray lost his serve in the opening game of the match. Cilic is a huge rangy loping specimen and his game plan was clear as he looked to shorten the points, seeking the sidelines with battering front-foot ground strokes. It is also easy to see why Murray leads 5-1 in matches between the two: here he was too nimble, asserting his tempo and dragging Cilic into his own comfort zone of long see-sawing rallies.

Murray held serve with an outrageous sliced stop shot from the back of the court to gain a foothold in the match. Then he broke back, creeping forward a full 10 feet from beyond the baseline to attack Cilic's high-kicking second serve from eyebrow-height. With the crowd over the back wall on the hill making more noise than Court One's largely flag-free cognoscenti, Murray's defence was suffocating as Cilic continued to attack without precision. Murray held serve to take the first set to 5-6, from where a succession of fine forehand service returns gave him three set points: he took the first of them, to a jarringly loud burst of applause from a crowd that had remained stoically free of the non-specific tittering excitement that often envelops these occasions

With Murray unfurling his quirky baseline drop shot repertoire it seemed likely Cilic might have folded at 5-7, 1-3 after an hour and seven minutes when the rain intervened. The match will resume on Tuesdaywith Murray safe in the knowledge that both Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martín del Potro, possible future opponents, have yet to complete their fourth-round matches; but knowing also that Federer in particular, who creaked at times against Xavier Malisse, will register Murray's loss of a rest day as a minor point in his favour.

Earlier the Wimbledon chief executive, Richard Lewis, had confirmed there was never any realistic chance of Murray's match being moved inside as a sop to British fans present to watch the home draw. "It's highly unlikely we would shift a match from Court One," Lewis said. "That's the scheduled order of play for Court One. It's not totally out of the question but it's just highly unlikely. You get into questions of who would you bring over and all sorts of subjectivity."

Lewis also ruled out the possibility of scheduled night-time tennis at Wimbledon, an issue tangled up in all sorts of municipal reservations on the part of Merton Council. This is also something that might have worked in Murray's favour. Evening appearances on Centre Court have seemed to lift him, producing a sense of late-night competitive intensity that is distinct from the still Henman-ish mania of the afternoon flag brigade. As it is, he will return on Court One at midday to attempt to finish a job well begun.